Canelo to challenge Bivol in 1st bout of new deal with DAZN and Matchroom
Pound-for-pound king moving back up to light heavyweight; fall match would complete trilogy with bitter rival Golovkin
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Pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez is moving back up to the light heavyweight division to challenge world titlist Dmitry Bivol in his next fight, the first of a new two-fight mega deal to return to promoter Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing and streaming service DAZN, they announced on Friday.
As expected, Mexico’s Alvarez will square off with Bivol on May 7 — the weekend of Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo that Alvarez prefers to fight on each year — at a site to be determined (probably Las Vegas) in what will be the first DAZN pay-per-view event.
The second fight of the nine-figure deal is ticketed for the Mexican Independence Day weekend in September. Although the opponent was not announced, it is an open secret that he would face rival Gennadiy Golovkin back at super middleweight as long as Alvarez beats Bivol and Golovkin, who is also under an exclusive contract to DAZN, defeats Ryota Murata in their delayed middleweight unification bout slated to take place on a date to be determined in April, depending on the Covid-19 situation in Japan, which is Murata’s home country where the bout will take place.
There is also an option for Alvarez, the undisputed super middleweight champion, 2021 fighter of the year and boxing’s biggest star, to have a third fight, possibly in December, a source with direct knowledge of the agreement told Fight Freaks Unite.
If Alvarez does all three bouts, it would be worth as much as $160 million, the source said.
“It is another great challenge for me and my career, especially as I go up in weight and face an exceptional light heavyweight champion like Bivol.” — Canelo
Before accepting the offer from Matchroom Boxing and DAZN, Alvarez manager Eddy Reynoso had talks with Al Haymon of Premier Boxing Champions for a one-fight deal worth about $45 million for Alvarez to defend the super middleweight title against middleweight titlist Jermall Charlo, who would have moved up in weight, in May. Then Haymon upped the offer to two fights with the second being a September match against two-time super middleweight titleholder David Benavidez with the two bouts worth in excess of $100 million.
Ultimately, Alvarez and PBC broke off talks and the past couple of weeks were spent refining the deal he eventually agreed to with Matchroom and DAZN, which was also working to get Golovkin’s side of the deal worked out.
Alvarez is 1-0-1 against Golovkin in two middleweight championship mega fights in 20017 and 2018 that were both commercial blockbusters and ended in heavily disputed decisions. A third fight has been talked about since even though Alvarez never showed much interest until this round of talks.
Alvarez (57-1-2, 39 KOs), 31, left Hearn and DAZN to go with PBC for a Showtime PPV fight on Nov. 6 against Caleb Plant to unify all four super middleweight titles. It was a one-fight deal and Alvarez knocked out Plant in the 11th round of a dominating performance to become the first-ever undisputed super middleweight champion in either the three- or four-belt era.
The fight with Bivol will be Alvarez’s second at 175 pounds. In November 2019, Alvarez jumped up from middleweight to light heavyweight to challenge then-WBO titlist Sergey Kovalev. Alvarez scored a spectacular 11th-round knockout and then went down to super middleweight for his next fight in December 2020 as he began his run to the undisputed title.
Now, it’s back up to light heavyweight.
“I am very happy with this fight against Dmitry Bivol,” Alvarez said in making the announcement. “It is another great challenge for me and my career, especially as I go up in weight and face an exceptional light heavyweight champion like Bivol.
“I am also very excited that we have this fight slated for Cinco De Mayo Weekend — May 7 — for all the fans to enjoy. We will be ready, like we always are.”
Bivol (19-0, 11 KOs), 31, of Russia, who has defeated notable opponents such as Joe Smith Jr., Jean Pascal and Sullivan Barrera, will be making his ninth title defense. He is coming off a near-shutout decision of countryman Umar Salamov on Dec. 11.
“I always only wanted to fight the best,” said Bivol, who has been asking for a fight with Alvarez for ages. “I believe that the rest of my goals will begin materialize on May 7.”
Said Vadim Kornilov, Bivol’s manager, “This will be a great night of boxing where two of the best collide for the highest recognition in the sport. The victor on May 7 will go on to become the biggest name in boxing for many more years to come.”
Alvarez and Bivol will meet face to face on Wednesday at news conference in San Diego, where Alvarez trains and where Matchroom Boxing and DAZN are putting on a card next Saturday.
Hearn, who very badly wanted to bring Alvarez back to DAZN, was understandably thrilled to finalize the deal.
“It is an absolute honor to announce a multi fight promotional deal with the pound-for-pound king Canelo Alvarez,” Hearn said. “Canelo transcends boxing and is the biggest star in the sport and we look forward to promoting some historic nights in 2022 live on DAZN PPV. First up, Saul takes on yet another champion, this time in the shape of fearsome undefeated WBA light heavyweight king Dmitry Bivol. Fans can expect a thrilling all-action match up.”
When Alvarez signed a long-term deal with DAZN in late 2018, the service took him off pay-per-view to help build its subscriber base, proclaiming that pay-per-view was dead. Alvarez eventually wound up suing former promoter Golden Boy and DAZN for breach of contract. They eventually settled and Alvarez did two short-term deals with Hearn and DAZN. Part of bringing him back for this deal was DAZN deciding to put it on pay-per-view in order to afford Alvarez.
According to the announcement, the fight will be available worldwide on DAZN, excluding Latin America and Mexico. In the United States and Canada, however, the event will be exclusive to DAZN PPV, which it said is “for very select events to come — and priced at $59.99 for current subscribers and $79.99 for new subscribers (inclusive of a one month subscription to DAZN).” One month of DAZN is $19.99 in the United States and $99 for one year.
DAZN said it will use the pay-per-view model for “very occasional events to come that will be sparingly offered to fight fans on top of a DAZN subscription.”
New subscribers to DAZN can subscribe for $99.99 until May 2. After that the annual price is going up to $149.99 with existing subscribers grandfathered in at the current $99.99 annual cost.
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So PPV is not dead anymore ? Thanks to Eddie it has been brought back to boxing how nice of him to breath life into a dead and outdated part of American Boxing. Saul got himself more free promotional favors from Eddie and DAZN then any Fighter could have asked for in the past four years. I am sure that DAZN and the gang would pay all of his expenses for drug testing 24/7/365 also because Eddie wants Boxing to succeed no matter the cost. For the love of the Sport, right.
Although I wanted to see Canelo fight Beterbiev the fight with Bivol is a perfectly acceptable fight. However the proposed September fight with Golovkin is not - imho it is set up for Canelo to get the only valid win over the old Kazak who is 40 in April.